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Ask HN: Programmable Watches with WiFi?

6 points

2 hours ago

| 2 comments

Hi. I'm looking for a programmable watch with wifi. Ideally I should be able to write custom programs/apps for the watch to display whatever I want to on them (e.g., make the watch make an https call to a server, receive json and render accordingly; allow the watch to receive "notifications" from the server)

Also, ideally, no requirement of a smartphone to send-receive data (it's ok to need a smartphone for the initial setup of the watch, though). I know about Pebble, but it doesn't have wifi. I know about some Garmins with wifi but for the kind of apps I want to write, the communication between the watch and the server has to be mediated by a phone. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, I don't want to pay $100/year just to be able to use my custom app in apple watches. I usually don't trust Google either (e.g., they discontinue everything in a blink of an eye).

So, what are my options?

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herczegzsolt

54 minutes ago

[-]

Is this question in any way related to television?

I just had to solve this problem recently. I've settled on Google Pixel Watch 4. There are some rabbit holes to go down though before it works reliably.

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lyaocean

1 hour ago

[-]

If you want truly standalone + WiFi + custom code, check SQFMI Watchy (ESP32). You can flash your own firmware, call HTTPS endpoints, parse JSON, and render custom UI without a phone in the loop.

Main tradeoff: it’s very DIY (power management, UX polish, tooling). If you want less DIY, Wear OS gives a better SDK, but the platform lock-in is much stronger.